Mother–clinician discussions in the neonatal intensive care unit: agree to disagree?

Objective:to compare mothers’ and clinicians’ understanding of an infant’s illness and perceptions of discussion quality in the neonatal intensive care unit.study design:english-speaking mothers with an infant admitted to the intensive care unit for at least 48 h were interviewed using a semi-structured survey. the clinician whom the mother had spoken to and identified was also surveyed. interviews were audiotaped and transcribed.result:a total of 101 mother–clinician pairs were interviewed. most mothers (89%) and clinicians (92%) felt that their discussions had gone well. almost all mothers could identify one of their infant’s diagnoses (100%) and treatments (93.4%). mothers and clinicians disagreed on infant illness severity 45% of the time. the majority of mothers (62.5%) who disagreed with clinician estimate of infant illness severity believed their infant to be less sick than indicated by the clinician.conclusion:mother–clinician satisfaction with communication does not ensure mother–clinician agreement about an infant’s medical status.